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Final Fantasy XIV Will Finally Cost Money

It has taken more than a year, but Square Enix is finally implementing a monthly subscription fee for its beleaguered MMORPG, Final Fantasy XIV. The game is notorious for having one of the most botched launches in gaming history... so botched, in fact, that the publisher refused to charge gamers money for the experience until now.

Square Enix announced the news on Final Fantasy XIV's official website. Players will start paying-to-play sometime "between late November and early December of 2011".

The move follows the release of numerous patches to Final Fantasy XIV this year, which Square says has fixed many of the game's problems. But the company is not going so far as to call the game "finished", as paying players can expect many more updates over the next year:

"The ideal that we have for FINAL FANTASY XIV, however, is extremely high, and we are aware that all of the following changes are still required to achieve the desired quality of service—redesign and restructuring of server layout and operation, overhaul of the user interface, reworking the design and specs of in-game areas, and vast upgrades to the player community systems."

"As we move closer towards this ideal, and as the operation of the game, the regular updates, and the development of the new FINAL FANTASY XIV continues, we will introduce our subscription-based billing system."

Fan reaction of the initial launch of Final Fantasy XIV on PC was so scathing that some people from the original development team were removed from the project, and subscription fees were dropped. More recently, Square Enix president and CEO Yoichi Wada conceded that the game had "greatly damaged" the Final Fantasy brand.

Square Enix has also revealed that the Playstation 3 version of Final Fantasy XIV is still at least another year away from launch.

Spy Guy says: I'm a closet Final Fantasy fan, but after reading GameSpy's brutal review, where we described the game as "having worst user interface in a PC game since 1998", I stayed clear of Final Fantasy XIV, even while it was free. Will you be joining the pay-to-play ranks now?